Who will join Samuel Eto'o in Everton's 'Over the hill' XI?

Paul Gascoigne celebrates after scoring for Everton against Bolton Wanderers in November 2001

Share

Get Everton FC updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

As Samuel Eto'o departs Everton FC for Sampdoria after less than five months with the club, who else will join him in a Blues ‘Over the hill’ XI of great players who probably had their best days behind them by the time they arrived at Goodison Park.

GOALKEEPER

Nigel Martyn

Nigel Martyn shouts instructions

David Moyes described the Cornish custodian as his “greatest-ever signing” and despite being 37 years old when he joined the Blues in 2003, former England keeper Martyn enjoyed an Indian Summer at Goodison.

Rescued from the reserves at Elland Road, Martyn soon displaced the injury-prone Richard Wright as Everton’s number one and helped them to a club record Premier League best finish of fourth in 2004/05.

He went on to play 100 games for Everton before an ankle injury forced him to retire in 2006 and Moyes turned to Tim Howard to replace him.

Frustratingly for Evertonians, Martyn could have signed for the club seven years before he actually did.

In the summer of 1996, he was poised to join the Blues from Crystal Palace as Joe Royle searched for a successor to Neville Southall but Martyn was left waiting at club owner Peter Johnson’s Park Foods offices on the Wirral so he drove down the motorway and joined Leeds United instead.

DEFENCE

Paul Power

Paul Power (right)

Intelligent on and off the pitch, the full-back studied for a law degree before making the grade at home town club Manchester City.

Power spent over a decade at Maine Road making 365 appearances and was City skipper when Howard Kendall surprisingly came calling for him in 1986, snapping him up for £65,000.

Despite being 32, Power slotted in straight away on Merseyside and shared the Everton Supporters’ Player of the Year award with skipper Kevin Ratcliffe as the Blues lifted their last League Championship to date in 1987.

A versatile performer who slotted in at left-back, left-wing and central midfield, Power incurred Kendall’s wrath for his muted celebrations when netting for Everton on his return to Maine Road – something that is commonplace now when players score against their former clubs.

He made 63 starts for the Blues and joined the coaching staff before returning to City to work with their Academy.

Kenny Sansom

Kenny Sansom, Everton

Another veteran left-back who caught Kendall’s eye.

In his pomp the Londoner was a more gifted player than Power and won 86 England caps – a record in his position before it was overhauled by Ashley Cole – but his best days were behind him by the time he embarked on his short spell on Merseyside.

Captaining Crystal Palace to victory in the FA Youth Cup he also skippered England at the same level and made his first team debut for the Eagles aged just 16.

In 1980 Sansom joined Arsenal in a £1million-rated swap deal for Clive Allen who had signed for the Gunners from QPR just weeks earlier and failed to play a game.

He made over 300 appearances in eight years at Highbury before stints at Newcastle United, QPR and Coventry City.

Sansom played just six games for Everton between February and March 1993 – scoring on his home debut in a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham – before winding down his career with Brentford and Watford.

Sadly he has suffered from gambling problems and alcoholism during retirement and in August 2013 it was reported that he was homeless.

Colin Todd

A rare English sweeper, County Durham-born Todd was one of the classiest defenders of the 1970s and considered by many to be the most talented player in his position of his generation.

Whereas many centre-halves in this era adopted a blood and thunder style, Todd appeared to glide through games with his superb touch and perfect timing.

After starting at Sunderland, Todd was a double League Champion (1972, 1975) and PFA Players’ Player of the Year (1975) with Derby County before Gordon Lee took him from the Baseball Ground for £300,000 in September 1978, three months shy of his 30th birthday.

Todd was often employed as a full-back at Goodison though – something one unnamed but well-respected ex-Evertonian likened to “Asking Lester Piggott to win the Derby on a donkey.

He actually won a third of his 27 England caps at full-back but Todd and the Blues didn’t prove to be a perfect fit and a year later he was sold to Birmingham after just 35 appearances.

After hanging up his boots Todd embarked on a much-travelled managerial career taking charge of Middlesbrough, Bolton, Swindon, Derby, Bradford and Darlington and now 66 he’s currently in his second spell at the helm of Danish club Randers FC.

Richard Gough

Dion Dublin battles it out with Richard Gough

As he looked to wind down his career, the former Scotland centre-back – capped 61 times – had spent two spells in Major League Soccer with Kansas City Wizards and San Jose Clash before he impressed his former Rangers manager Walter Smith with a loan spell at Nottingham Forest.

Despite being 37, Gough signed for Everton in the summer of 1999 and went on to skipper the Blues in a two-year spell in which he featured 42 times.

A model pro, he was once involved in some on-field fisticuffs with Blues team-mate Don Hutchison after objected to the former Liverpool man’s foul-mouthed criticism of David Weir.

Gough was born in Stockholm to a Swedish mother and Scottish father and raised in South Africa.

He won the Scottish Premier Division title with first club Dundee United in 1983 and with a spell at Tottenham in between returned north of the border to help Rangers win their ‘nine in a row’ championships from 1989-1997.

Midfield

Norman Whiteside

Norman Whiteside

‘Stormin’ Norman’ was still only 24 when he arrived at Goodison Park in 1989 but already had eight seasons in Manchester United’s first team behind him.

The Ulsterman enjoyed an impressive first year at the Blues, netting 13 times in 35 appearances from midfield but long-standing problems with injuries on his right knee soon took their toll and he played just twice in 1990/91 before having to hang up his boots at just 26.

A former United favourite he was granted a testimonial by the Red Devils in May 1992 but on the back of Alex Ferguson’s side blowing the league title to Leeds United the previous week a paltry 7,434 turned up for the game against Everton at Old Trafford.

A Wayne Rooney-esque ‘man child’, Whiteside broke Pele’s record to become the youngest player at a World Cup finals when he turned out for Northern Ireland in 1982.

He won the FA Cup twice with United in 1983 and 1985, netting an extra time winning goal in the latter to deny future employers Everton a domestic double.

Whiteside went on to train as a podiatrist, graduating with a degree from the University of Salford and regulars figures with corporate hospitality at Old Trafford on matchdays.

Paul Gascoigne

Everton's Paul Gascoigne salutes the crowd after their win against Sunderland

Another of Walter Smith’s former Rangers players, Gascoigne came to the Blues on a free transfer from Middlesbrough in 2000 – a decade after his Italia ‘90 heyday.

Niggling injuries and ongoing battle with depression restricted his appearances though and he totalled 32 games in two seasons, netting his final goal in English football in a 2-2 draw at Bolton Wanderers on November 3 2001.

One of David Moyes’ first duties as Blues boss after his arrival in March 2002 was to let Gascoigne join Burnley.

A prodigious talent at Newcastle United, Gascoigne found fame at Tottenham before starring in England’s march to the World Cup semi-finals in 1990, culminating with his famous tears after being booked against West Germany – an act that would have kept him out of the final if Bobby Robson’s side had progressed.

Agreeing a lucrative move to Lazio before the 1991 FA Cup final, he ruptured his own cruciate ligaments with a reckless challenge on Nottingham Forest’s Gary Charles but despite a year on the sidelines his move to Serie A still went ahead.

Away from the field, Gascoigne continues to battle with his own personal demons and in October last year police were called to his house after a drink binge and he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital for detox.

John Collins

Everton's John Collins battles with Aston Villa's Ian Taylor in November 1999

A classy playmaker who had enjoyed an impressive career with Hibernian, Celtic and Monaco, new Everton boss Walter Smith’s ability to lure his former Old Firm rival from Monte Carlo in the summer of 1998 was considered a major coup.

Collins had helped Monaco reach the semi-finals of the Champions League earlier that year having clinched the French title in 1997 but his time at Goodison was a major disappointment for both player and team.

Aged 30, Collins had a penalty saved by Aston Villa’s Mark Bosnich in a goalless stalemate on his Blues debut and it proved a taste of things to come as he failed to recapture his previous form that had made him one of European football’s most highly-prized talents.

During the 1999/2000 season Collins made it clear that he intended to quit Goodison at the end of the campaign and he dropped down to the second tier the following summer to be reunited with his former Monaco coach Jean Tigana at Fulham.

He is now back at Celtic as assistant manager to Norwegian Ronny Deila.

David Ginola

David Ginola of Everton runs at Abel Xavier of Liverpool

Along with Gascoigne, the Frenchman who used to advertise L’Oreal hair products is probably one of the few former footballers who probably weighs less now than he did during his Goodison playing days.

The tricky winger was one of the most talented individuals in the Premier League during his time at Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur but he was pretty washed up by the time Smith made one last gamble on him in 2002, apparently after his number two Archie Knox and been impressed with his performance for Aston Villa reserves against their Everton counterparts.

Ginola played just seven times for the Blues and after just a single substitute appearance under new boss Moyes was deemed surplus to requirements and promptly retired.

Backed by bookmakers Paddy Power, he is currently planning an audacious challenge to Sepp Blatter’s FIFA presidency.

Striker

Mark Hughes

Middlesbrough's Phil Stamp (r) flies in on Everton's Mark Hughes (l)

Bizarrely Hughes was already Wales national team coach by the time he was signed by Everton from Southampton in 2000 by who else but Walter Smith.

Despite proving to be something of a cult hero at the time with Blues fans, Hughes had lost his once golden scoring touch and netted just once in 19 outings over two seasons, seemingly spending most of his time with his back to goal wrestling with opposition centre-halves.

Earlier in his career, as well as having impressive spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Hughes won two Premier League titles, three FA Cups, a League Cup and a European Cup-Winners’ Cup with Manchester United before adding another FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup-Winners’ Cup with Chelsea.

After exiting Goodison, Hughes dropped out of the top flight for the first time to join Blackburn and helped them clinch promotion, adding a further League Cup in 2002 and netting a final Premier League goal aged 40.

He went on to manage Blackburn, Manchester City, Fulham and QPR and is now in charge of Stoke City.